Why THE LAST JEDI’s Foxes Look Crystalline

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The crystalline foxes in the most recent trailer for The Last Jedi caught everyone’s attention. One of the many things Star Wars is known for is its creative creatures, and the fox is all kinds of otherworldly. It’s based on an animal from our world but twisted. This fox doesn’t have piles of soft fur; instead it appears to be mostly covered in crystals. Star Wars creature effects supervisor Neal Scanlan talked to Empire about why the foxes look the way they do.

He said, “The theory is they’ve fed off this planet for so long that their fur has become crystalline. They’ve taken on the very surface of the planet they live on.”

As we’ve previously discussed, the crystal foxes call Crait home. The mineral planet has a white surface of salt. And underneath the salt and red soil, there are crystal filled caverns. We saw the Falcon racing through them in the trailer. That environment has affected the fox to the point that they’ve adapted into what they eat. Except I don’t think they so much eat and digest (though The Force Awakens did feature creatures on Jakku that ate metal) as they do absorb the energy from the crystals.

Building up a hardened exterior of crystals likely makes life for the foxes easier, too. They can’t be cut by the sharp edges of all the minerals on Crait if they’re equally as sharp. The revelation is a little thing, but it’s encouraging to know that the storytellers and makers behind the scenes of the film consider every detail, down to the evolution of a single creature

What theories do you have about the crystal foxes of Crait? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Images: Disney/Lucasfilm

Amy Ratcliffe is an Associate Editor for Nerdist. She likes Star Wars a little. Follow her on Twitter.